early Tel Aviv

Rubin painted the sights of Tel Aviv only throughout the 1920s', marveling over the "miracle" of a nascent Hebrew city spreading on the sand dunes. He painted the yellow sand, the blue water and the paved streets which - on his canvases- seem like waterways pouring into the Mediterranean. He depicted the sycamore trees and the city's inhabitants: the milkman, the street sweeper and others who made up the 'human landscape' of the Hebrew city. By documenting their deeds, he felt like one of the pioneers building the new city. When Tel Aviv soon turned into a metropolis, he replaced the "urban" landscapes with the pastoral olive groves and Arab villages of the Galilee and the road to Jerusalem.